about using the word racism...

[think_too_mut]

>try to understand the world the taxidriver is coming from. that bloke, if exposed to farang, is generally exposed to a farang who married his sister/cousin/etc. who brought her to live in the west, does not speak thai, spends often vast sums of money. and he is exposed to countless passangers he picks up with prostitutes.

rarely he meets a farang who speaks thai, who is somewhat adapted to life here.

 

Other than going for Thai language classes, what else could we possibly do to please iliterate part-time buggers who happened to work as taxi drivers between two rice harvests?

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

I don't think that was called for.

 

Fly is trying to explain why a taxi driver might react the way he does. I do not see that he is saying we should try to please taxi drivers, but rather that by adapting a bit more those prejudices disappear very quickly.

 

I agree with his thinking btw.

 

Sanuk!

[Guest]

>>>Other than going for Thai language classes, what else could we possibly do to please iliterate part-time buggers who happened to work as taxi drivers between two rice harvests?<<<

 

 

well, there is a certain irony concerning your statement here and the topic of this thread.

 

but basically, that post and the attitude displayed does speak for itself, just don't complain when people are disrespectful and "racist" towards you.

 

i have a question for you: how do you deal with the fact that your wife comes from exactly that social class and most likely has relatives who are "iliterate part-time buggers who happened to work as taxi drivers between two rice harvests"?

[Guest]

>>>thats called integrity fly..I dont find falang offensive but on reading itsmedaves post has got me thinking that Thais can be ill mannered baffoons!<<<

 

 

and so can be farang.

or do you think it is perfectly alright that every year hundred thousands of farang come here and behave like swine in everybody's face? hanging out in front of thermae in the morning after fooling around with hookers while children go to school, snogging their "girlfriends" in the skytrain?

 

looking at this i always wonder why the incidents of personal racism are not far worse here than they are.

 

 

look at it - thailand for so many is the "land of smile", the land where even the most obnoxious twat is getting layed if he has enough money. do you actually believe that this does not breed some sort of resentment?

 

 

for christs sake, guys, why are you so quick to point the fingers on others, and rarely have a closer look at yourselves?

every little incident of resentment towards you is interpreted as "racism", but so many of you defend your behavior and effects on this culture here going even to the extend of completely ignoring history and culture for the convenience of being able to continue screwing around?

 

it's all a two way street, nothing comes from nothing.

we westerners go around the world thinking that our money and power can buy everthing. but we forget that there is one think money cannot buy: love and respect. that has to be earned.

[Guest]

and personally, maybe it is just me, but the vast majority of taxidrivers i encounter here are nice blokes i have usually great conversations with.

the few arseholes i meet generally are taxis i pick up at either silom or sukhumvit whose regular routes are - silom and sukhumvit.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Yep, seems to echo my experiences with them as well.

 

Sanuk!

[think_too_mut]

>i have a question for you: how do you deal with the fact that your wife comes from exactly that social class and most likely has relatives who are "iliterate part-time buggers who happened to work as taxi drivers between two rice harvests"?

 

 

I have an answer for you: sent her to school, now uni. In a year, she'll probably have more education than you. That changes a lot, does not it?

[Guest]

>>>I have an answer for you: sent her to school, now uni. In a year, she'll probably have more education than you. That changes a lot, does not it?<<<

 

 

no, it doesn't. it doesn't even have anything to do with the question. my question was about her relatives, and if you feel about them the same way you feel about the taxidrivers you posted about.

because unless you send them all to school they will still be halfliterate blokes who have to get by somehow between riceharvests.

[Guest lazyphil]

Tourists go all over the world to lots of different places from lots of places. LOS is no different, I remember some Spanish yobbo students were caught using ducklings at a duck pond near me as footballs while primary children looked on crying does that mean all Spanish who come here should have to be addressed as a foreingner or typecasted as scum?, are Thai sensibilities so special compared to say here in the uk?

 

<<we westerners go around the world thinking that our money and power can buy everthing>>

 

Speak for yourself!....and look at numbnuts Taksin and Liverpool FC, hes Asian last time I looked, you should have said people with MONEY, not westerners!!!

 

Thailand/Thais have done little to stop the flow of the 'obnoxious twats' who go to LOS, in fact they have encouraged it in the past, now this doesn't excuse piss poor manners but it goes with the terratory, so yes its resented but whos fault is it?. Why should Itsmedave get called falang when some other word would suffice?

[Guest]

>>>Why should Itsmedave get called falang when some other word would suffice?<<<

 

 

first of all - because he is a farang (as per linguistic definition of that term).

and secondly, not being able to speak the language enough he has not been sufficiently able to counter the stereotype that taxidriver has about farang. even worse - he has only reinforced it. 3 years in thailand and not able to speak thai sufficiently to have a basic conversation? sorry, i have worked in a different life with illegal african immigrants, who were partly illiterate, and who were able to manage a basic conversation in german after two months, and were near fluent after 6 months.

now an educated westerner not speaking thai after 3 years living here?

 

 

 

 

>>>Tourists go all over the world to lots of different places from lots of places. <<<

 

are you trying to tell me that every year hundred thousands of sextourists from wherever descend on the british islands? and if that would be so, you fellow brits would be absolutely cool about it?

fuckoff! you know as well as me that if that would be the case there would be mayham and corpses everywhere.

 

 

 

>>>Thailand/Thais have done little to stop the flow of the 'obnoxious twats' who go to LOS, in fact they have encouraged it in the past, <<<

 

true. but consider that here in the "land of smile" what the governments do does not necessarily reflect the will/opinions of the population. due to a long history of massakers people here prefer to keep their heads low in too openly stating their political convictions.

 

 

 

>>>now this doesn't excuse piss poor manners but it goes with the terratory, so yes its resented but whos fault is it?.<<<

 

you can't expect people always to deal logically. look at it in the west: people blame illegal immigrants themselves for what is clearly not their fault, and for what they most definately would do if the position would be reversed.

it is just human to look for someone as close as possible to let their frustrations out. we do it - they do it.

and i have yet to see the incidents of extreme violence here rooted in pure racial hatred i have seen in the west so often.